What I want my children to learn....

I dreamt I had an interview with God. "Come in," God said. "So, you would like to interview Me?"

"If you have the time," I said.

God smiled and said: "My time is eternity and is enough to do everything; what questions do you have in mind to ask me?"

"What surprises you most about mankind?"

God answered:

• "That they get bored of being children, are in a rush to grow up, and then long to be children again.
• That they lose their health to make money and then lose their money to restore their health.
• That by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live neither for the present nor the future.
• That they live as if they will never die, and they die as if they had never lived…"

God’s hands took mine and we were silent for a while and then I asked…"As a parent, what are some of life’s lessons you want your children to learn?"

God replied with a smile:

• "To learn that they cannot make anyone love them. What they can do is to let themselves be loved.
• To learn that what is most valuable is not what they have in their lives, but who they have in their lives.
• To learn that it is not good to compare themselves to others. 
• To learn that a rich person is not the one who has the most, but is one who needs the least.
• To learn that it only takes a few seconds to open profound wounds in persons we love, and that it takes many years to heal them.
• To learn to forgive by practicing forgiveness.
• To learn that there are persons that love them dearly, but simply do not know how to express or show their feelings.
• To learn that money can buy everything but happiness.
• To learn that two people can look at the same thing and see it totally differently.
• To learn that a true friend is someone who knows everything about them…and likes them anyway.
• To learn that it is not always enough that they be forgiven by others, but that they have to forgive themselves."

I sat there for a while enjoying the moment. "Thank you for your time" I said humbly.  "Is there anything else you would like your children to know?"

"To learn that I am here.... Always."

People will forget what you said.
People will forget what you did,
but people will never forget
how you made them feel.

~ Source Unknown ~